A lot of mommies sympathized with her and said she should just use a nursing cover or borrow a shop's dressing room or hide in a quiet restaurant. Other moms called for Festival Mall to build a breastfeeding lounge while commending other malls for already installing nice nursing rooms.
This is how I feel about it: Whenever and wherever you are, just pop out the boob and nurse your baby!
I know how Kathy feels. I have nursing covers. I have special clothes with built-in flaps so I can cover my baby's face. I wrote to Power Plant Mall to ask them to build a breastfeeding lounge (Power Plant's Tin Coquiero told me they are now building two!). I have been there—trying to feed my baby while covering myself up and getting stared at by people, knowing that they're not thinking, "Oh, what a great mom she is!"
I struggled for a while. It was especially difficult when the boys didn't want to hide under a cover anymore. They wanted to observe the world as they ate. How do I breastfeed and be modest at the same time?
You know what, I just realized and embraced that the two don't belong together. A mother shouldn't have to think about modesty or being decent or offending other people. All a mother should be thinking about when her child is hungry is, "My child is hungry. I must feed him!" No hiding, no shame.
Bottled Up! from mire molnar on Vimeo.
You know, I never had boobs. I was a flat AA. That's flatter than flat. That's almost concave! Then I got pregnant and now I have breasts. Obviously, they're not for sex or for my husband's pleasure or so I can look good in V-cut tops. Those are just the happy by-products of having swelled up mammary glands!
But the real reason I have breasts is so I can feed my children the best possible food I can give them. Any biologist or scientist or doctor will tell you that breasts are for feeding your young. So when my children ask for milk, I have to feed them. Don't take that away from me. Don't take that away from my kids!